Friday, November 14, 2014 "November Saddening Part 3."

Friday, November 14, 2014
Week: 13
Songs to Remember: All Those Friendly People - Funeral Suits

        So today was the Catholic version of the funeral. The staff people were getting ready to close the casket and my mom runs over and cries out my uncle's name and burst into tears.

        She and my other aunts were crying as well from that. After they closed it, they brought it into to the front of the church thing as we all walked behind. We sat down and did the usual catholic funeral stuff. The funeral director told us beforehand to silence our cellphones or tune em' off to prevent them from ringing and disturbing the whole thing. Apparently not everybody followed and I heard about 5 phones ring during the whole thing. This one person who sat to the front-right of me's phone rang and she even answered it. She was like "I'm at the church right now, it'll be over soon, they're just about to finish" and then people shush'ed her before she can go on to be even more disrespectful.

        The least someone could do during funerals is to be respectful, that's the number thing and the least someone can do. Anyways, after the priest did the stuff, my uncle went up to do a speech or something. He said like one sentence and started crying really hard, then he stepped down and left it at that. I never seen my uncle (that particular uncle, I have many many uncles) cry before. Back during my grandfather's funeral back in December, I didn't really see him cry at all. In the beginning today during visiting, I didn't see him cry either.

        I guess it got to him when he went to go up and talk and he just sorta let it all out. Then my uncle's friends (I guess they were his friends, not sure if they're related to me or not, many people I've never seen before), about like 10 of them went up there and one of them gave a speech for all them. After that, the priest proceeded with blessing one more time, incense, and then had the casket be brought out to the hearse. Everyone then went to the cemetary through a police escort (which was very cool, felt really VIP and stuff).

        Driving through the cemetary, I saw all these gravestones and they had dates like 1903, 1892, etc. I was like "Woah, those things are still here today". Like, I was so intrigued by that 'cause I was just thinking about a the history in each of those people's lives during their time periods. Very fascinating. Anyways, we got to the burial site and everyone receibed a flower to place on my uncle's casket. Everyone who was wearing a white ribbon on the arms took em' off to place on the casket as well. I don't know what's with the white ribbons, I mean, only my aunts, a couple of my uncles, my cousins, and I wore them. I've searched up about it but I've found nothing on it. Of someone can knows what it's for, please tell me. Maybe it has to do with closeness to the person or something?

        So, everyone placed their ribbons and flowers on the casket and I was thinking "Is he going to be buried here in this chamber or something"? And then I realized after I saw the machinery box in the house chamber thing, that my uncle wasn't going to be buried, he was going to be cremated. That really surprised me 'cause for our grandfather, we buried him, not cremate. I've never seen a cremation happen before (like, not experience being near a cremation) so this would be my first time. Everyone was crying already when they were lifting his body to the cremation thingy. Everyone crowded toward the front to get a last glimpse.

        Everyone was like crying and when the cremator guy turned on the machine, everyone cried super hard. Like, on my goodness, probably the saddest event I'll ever experience. My mom was crying hard and I tried comforting her again. I saw one of my other uncles cry as well, first time seeing them cry. My aunt (the wife of my uncle) didn't really seem to cry though. I think she just knew that crying wouldn't help with anything. She just had this expression on her face that just represented sadness, just straight sadness.

        I don't know what they'll do with the ashes. And after everyone left, we went to my cousin's grandma's house I guess (my cousin whose saddened by this funeral of her father). Not very sure who's house this was, but we had like a small feast, very recreational, everyone laughed a lot, trying to get over the whole thing. My aunt was still very sad though, she still had that soul-less expression. My cousin seemed okay after conversing with her cousins or whoever. Don't really know half the people at the whole thing.

        My cousins and I (I'll call them Js and Jt) just sat, ate noodles, dried and cooked squid (very charcoal-y), and had fun messing around with these stray cats that came over. And soon it was over, everyone went home and we went back to our grandmother's house. Everyone's really tired from these past couple days, I just wanted to get some sleep from it all. I heard my mom on the car ride to my grandmother's house, talking to one of my aunts (or possibly friend, I really don't know) about how one of uncles was like "Why do bad people live but nice people die?" My cousin (the one who came yesterday) was thinking like the same thing too. My dad was talking to him about this all and my cousin was like "I feel like it wasn't his time, he should've been here for a lot longer".

        And here I am, writing all this at 11:59 PM. I still have like these thoughts where my mind just stops and asks myself "Did this all really happen? Is this happening right now?" Like, this is all really unexpected, I just don't know if I'm really where I am right now. But here I am, at my grandmother's house, in L.A, in a room, sleeping with my cousins for the next 2-ish days.

        I checked Facebook today and I saw my cousin (let's call her Dn) post some old pictures of her and her dad and mom. And j was just thinking like "Damn, the thoughts going through her head right now. I can't imagine it". I hope she works toward a bright future, and my aunt a good life onwards. And my uncle, may he have a great time where he is now. My mom was talking to this one person on the phone and the person she was talking to was like " I asked her if she remembers him and she was like "Oh yeah, that uncle, he was very funny, very funny". Not the best translation of how that call went, but enough to describe my point.

        Have fun where ever you are uncle. See you tomorrow.